Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Average, 30 Jan 2008
A slightly under whelming action thriller that stars Jet Li as a Rogue assassin up against Jason Statham's obsessive FBI agent.
Both turn in the type of performances that you would expect, but with a quite a bland generic script and the occasional lull in pace, the film really doesn't have anything new to offer the genre.
In terms of the action there enough fights, explosions and car stunts to satisfy, but you get the impression that budget restrictions meant that they couldn't do larger scale stuff.
One interesting development late on that redeems some of the negative points is a nice plot twist that may not be obvious to all, and that really justifies the motivation of Jet's character.
In closing, not bad, but not up there with some of Statham's and Li's other movies.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Breach of Eastern promises, 23 Mar 2008
Short Attention Span Summary (SASS)
1. Shoot out
2. Ambush
3. Execution
4. Revenge
5. Obsession
6. Betrayal
7. Double Cross
8. Swordfight
9. Hand to hand combat
10. Atonement
There - that just about covers everything you need to know before watching this movie.
Essentially, it's a martial arts-based action film about a carefully engineered war between Triad and Yazuka gangs, with Jason Statham as Jack Crawford, an FBI task force leader, and Jet Li as Rogue, reportedly an ex-CIA assassin gone wild.
When Crawford's partner and his partner's family are murdered, Crawford commits himself to avenging their deaths, to the detriment of his own family life.
Not exactly all that it could have been, the plot isn't very good, and the ending is worse, but at least you can't fault it for providing non-stop action and thrills. Recommended for Statham and Li fans, and people who'd love to own a cool car like the Spyker C8 Spider.
Rated: 3.5 for entertainment (albeit mindless)
Amanda Richards
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing action thriller. Good cast but barely used, 22 Jun 2008
You'd think that an action-thriller which starred Jet Li and Jason Statham as opposing forces in the middle of a Yakuza/Triad battle for supremacy would be a sure-fire hit.
But it's not.
The flabby direction and limp script mean that the plot struggles along from one senseless shoot 'em up to the next. Statham is an FBI agent who's been chasing down the Triads and Yakuza for years, looking to revenge his partner who was killed by a Yakuza hitman called Rogue. Rogue turns up on the scene again just as open warfare erupts between the Chinese and Japanese gangs. It should've been great.
However, this film is kneedeep in pointless cliches and un-necessary 'hard man' antics which don't make either protagonist look tough (just a bit silly). The FBI don't really leap into the middle of gang gunfights and indescriminately shoot anyone who moves. Grumpy (sorry 'anguished') FBI agents don't always have to end up divorced and living along, eating out of takeaway pizza boxes. Nor do FBI operations rooms have displays showing the main bad-guy characters, with big notices saying 'Yakuza' and 'Triad' so the hard-of-thinking can keep track of who's who.
Now, if the pace had ripped along and the fights been thrilling, and if Jet Li had been his usual sublimely cool self, and if Statham had been harder than titanium nails, then none of this would have mattered. Mindless action movies are great, when they're great. But even the final fight, which we had to wait hours for, between the two top guys, was a let down. Poorly shot, jerky, confusing and ultimately unrewarding. Bah.
There is a nice bit of plotting which surprised us, and there are some good turns (the Yakuza daughter, for instance). So watching War wasn't a complete waste of time. But while you can get away with this kind of flimsy film-making when it's watched on a big screen (and the big booms and occasion cameoflage the short cuts), home viewing shows up all of its flaws.
So this is definitely one to rent, not buy.
5/10
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